Ruger Stops Taking New Orders

“Shares of firearm specialist Sturm, Ruger & Co. (NYS: RGR) surged as much as 10.6% Thursday after it posted solid first-quarter bookings,” dailyfinance.com reports. It’s a 52-week high for a stock that’s risen by 115% over the last year. Today’s surge isn’t much of a surprise given that the gunmaker has been making guns as fast as it can. In fact, Ruger can’t make them fast enough. Literally. “Demand for its firearms has been so strong — Sturm Ruger received orders for more than 1 million units in the first quarter — that management is being forced to temporarily suspend the acceptance of new orders . . . Management said it will report quarterly results May 1 and that it expects to resume the normal acceptance of orders by the end of May.” dailyfinance.com reckons Ruger’s share price has maxed-out. For now. Freedom Group IPO anyone? Don’t look at me . . .

comments

Yep, that is why if you want a Ruger product, any Ruger product, then you may want to get down to your LGS and buy it now. Just yesterday, in fact, I picked up a Ruger LCR in .22LR to go along with the same model in .357 magnum. They had been out of them for about a month. The statement that they plan on resuming new order requests by the end of May sounds like an estimate to me.

Well, according to the wingnuts, less people are buying more guns than ever before, which accounts for the surge in sales. I’m sure they’re right. In fact, I can confirm that I ordered six hundred pistols from Ruger for my personal collection, but now it looks like I’ll have to wait for delivery.

My brother probably should have bought Ruger stock instead of Ruger firearms this past year. He is VERY happy with the firearms, a total of 3 single action handguns in .357 caliber, but he could have used the extra money more in this economy.

I’m not sure they should be concentrating on building them “as fast as they can.” I’ve been buying new and used Rugers since 1990 and I’ve never been disappointed until my last purchase. I took my new Single-Ten out for a workout in the desert and on 3 out of ten cylinders, the hammer bound up and refused to ignite the primer with out a nudge to get it going. It was an easy fix that took 20 minutes of stoning rough edges, but I don’t think it should have left the factory like that.

Last week, I dragged my wife of almost 39 years screaming and kicking (not really) to my favorite Dallas area police supply store, as we were driving right by it anyway … I had to stop in, as it pulls me in like a fly to light!

I was not really looking for anything special (yeah, right), and moseyed over to the new and used firearms department. They had dozens of police trade in Glocks at decent prices, and a few used SIG’s that were very interesting and priced very reasonably. In the back of my mind was that if they had another Ruger SR1911, it would be nice to keep my other 1911’s company (Ruger SR1911 purchased last month, Taurus PT1911, and a variety of Colt and GI Remington Rand models in the gun safe). I looked at the long guns on the wall, the used police rifles and used Remington 870’s on the floor racks, but I kept drifting back to the new handgun showcases. I kept drifting back to a Ruger KSR40C in Stainless that I had almost purchased during previous visits. I noticed that most of the Ruger slots were almost totally empty, and the salesman said that Ruger’s had become scarce as the demand for them has soared. No SR1911’s in stock (they all sold out the day they came in), no LC9’s (I was wearing an LC9 in my Desantis Super Tuck II) , and only a few LCP’s, an SR9, and the lonely KSR40C. The salesman took the KSR40C out of the case, checked it, locked back the slide, and handed it to me.

My wife said those golden words, “You have a birthday coming up – would you like that for your birthday present?” Sheepishly, I said OK, and the rep went to the back to get one in the box, but alas, there were none except the display model, but they did have the box and all of the contents. I gave him my driver’s license, and police ID, did the online digital 4473 and instant background check, and he rang it up at the Ruger LE price (about 1/3 off retail). If my wife had not pressured me into buying it with her birthday ploy, I might have left empty handed!

Just as she has to buy matching shoes when she buys a new purse, I had to wander over to the ammo shelves to purchase some matching .40 cal ammo (and a few .45 to boot). I already have an adequate supply of .40 that I have used exclusively for my other .40 pistols, but a few new boxes wouldn’t hurt. Sadly, I have never seen the ammo shelves in that large police supply store as bare as they were that day! My favorite Federal HST loads were unavailable in 9, .40, and .45 so I had to buy the older hydroshocks instead (the +P in .45). Most of the shelves were empty of pistol ammo in the popular loads and calibres; I asked my sales rep if he had any Federal HST, Hornady TAP-CQ Short Barrel, or Speer Short Barrel loads in the back, and he said that everything he had was on the shelves, as the supply of ammo had dramatically tightened over the past few weeks, and several of their regular orders were now on backorder, or cancelled by the manufacturers! The only ammo that was in abundance, in cases of 500 and in sealed ammo cans was 5.56, in a variety of loads. They had a pallet load of sealed ammo cans of the Federal 5.56 in stripper clips for the best price that I have seen recently, as well as a 1/2 pallet of the green-tip 5.56 in cases of 500. He said that since the military slow down in the Mideast, the 5.56 makers are dumping their now excess inventory. I was tempted to pick up an ammo can of the Federal 5.56 in stripper clips, but I noticed in my wife’s non-verbal communications that her benevolence was being stretched.

Maybe those 5.56 ammo cans will still be there the next time that I wander by … without my wife! (Please do NOT tell her).

Being the gallant gentleman that I am, I am willing to consider putting my brand new never fired Ruger SP101 357 Magnum 4″ barrel up for bid. Bids start at $2,200. You are responsible for shipping and all other fees. Such a deal only occurs once in a lifetime.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the SR1911. Best out-of-the-box 1911 for under a grand out there. Of course, I like my Colt 1911 too, but it was significantly more money for fewer features. You do pay for that pony.

Ruger’s backlog has increased to $138 million at last report, and I’m sure the last report is out of date. Ruger received orders for a million units in the last quarter and its sales projection for the current years is somewhere north of 1.2 million units. You do the math. Ruger is behind by more than a year.

By refusing new orders, Ruger isn’t reducing its backlog, it’s only reducing the increase. This is a good news / bad news situation. The good news is that there’s a lot of demand out there. The bad news is that Ruger can’t fill it.

Aharon, absolutely to the last two. As for price increases, I’m not sure that Ruger breeds as many Kool Aid drinking fans as Glock does. So while prices for certain Ruger guns may increase a lot, other prices will increase little if at all. But if all the manufacturers illegally conspire together to raise prices play follow the leader, all gun prices will go up.

In my opinion, the Ruger SR-556 (the poor mans LWRC?) started the trend. I’d love to get my hands on their new little .22 pistol (the SR-22, I believe), but I’ll just keep plinking away with the 22/45 and venerable 10/22 until then…

I sincerely hope Ralph is wrong on this one, no offense Ralph. I currently own 2 Rugers, a tricked out 22/45 and a 10/22 (only thing Ruger on that is the receiver). I’ve been trying to track down a .357 LCR and a stainless SR9C for a few weeks now to supplement my spring wardrobe. No luck on either. I hope Ruger and CO can keep up the quality that their reputation was built on. It would be a shame to watch a great American company like them take a turn down the Freedom Group Lane.

I purchased the Ruger LCR .22 and Crimson laser grip. The pistol is easy to handle and has a generous 8 shots. Since I purchased this for my wife, I wanted a hammerless small caliber. My complaint is the trigger requires several pounds more pressure than the equivelent .38 to fire. It’s significant in side by side test and am concerned the weapon will not work out its so difficult to maintain aim due to the trigger pull. Even for me to get a really accurate shot have to press 1/2 hold and then finish trigger pull which is not efficient.

I look at lots of Ruger Firearms. The quality of Ruger revolvers has gone down in in almost everyway, fit and finish, in the past 7 years I can tell. They always had a problem in keep their barrels straight.